More than 70 consultants from Grant Thornton's South African Cape Town office have decided to quit the firm and join counterpart Mazars as of August 2012. Amongst the transfers are also six partners. The exodus follows a series of clashes between two partner groups, who have a significantly “different view” on the strategy to be pursued.

In a press statement, Grant Thornton said the following: “The decision was reached when differences between two key groups of partners could not be overcome”. According to Deepak Nagar, managing partner at the consulting firm, the issue arose from the decision two years ago to double revenues by 2015 and the question how that objective could be achieved. “There were big differences over the direction of the firm,” he added.

Merger BDO and Grant Thornton

The current organisation of Grant Thornton has only recently been this large in Cape Town. In June 2010, it bought the Cape Town branch of BDO and added approximately 90 consultants to its staff. Insiders have repeatedly acknowledged that the management team has never managed to merge the two corporate cultures effectively. It is not surprising that the vast majority of the consultants that decided to move to Mazars originate from the BDO organization.